By Arvind Kala
For many decades the Third World criticized the minority whites of South Africa for running an apartheid regime that impoverished and degraded the majority blacks. All those years, however, one fact escaped the Third World: that though the white rulers of South Africa treated their blacks badly, other black African leaders of Africa treated their blacks even worse. Idi Amin of Uganda, for instance, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people between 1971 and 1979, but India and the rest of the Third World ignored his brutality and focused only on racial discrimination in South Africa. In 1994 we are witness to an amazing spectacle. The whites of South Africa have peacefully handed over power to a black majority, while in all black Rwanda, Hutu tribesmen are killing their minority Tulsi tribesmen 10 times faster than Hitler could kill Jews, The Hutus outnumber the Tutsis six to one, and they have Killed an estimated one million Tutsis in a matter of eight weeks. This is perhaps the fastest slaughter of human beings in a civil war in the history of mankind.
Contrast this massacre with the relative peace that prevailed in South Africa. Between 1986 and last month when Mr Nelson Mandela took over power, only around 10,000 persons were killed in South Africa’s black movement for self-rule. And most of these blacks were killed by fellow blacks and not by white policemen. Even today, the hatred between black groups in South Africa is more intense than the hatred between blacks and whites as a whole. But the Third’ World adopts a double standard when it comes to Judging the actions of whites and blacks, If whites criticize blacks, they are racists. If blacks criticize other blacks in public, they are traitors. This is an insidious form Of racial discrimination. It suggests it is perfectly acceptable for blacks to butcher themselves but morally wrong for whites to do the same thing. The truth is that ethnic hatred among the blacks of Africa has devastated the continent far more than the 60 years of exploitative colonial rule it lived through. But for too long has Africa blamed its miseries on an unfair worldwide trade which buys up African produce cheap and sells finished products to Africa dearly. In 1990 the Nigerian President, General Ibrahim Babangida, even called on western nations to pay compensation to Africa fir damage done to the continent by the slave trade.
Third World solidarity prevents India from seeing the reality in Africa. The reality is a continent that has gone beyond the point of no return. See the hatreds convulsing African nations, for instance, Mozambique had 16 years of civil war which killed one million people, turned another two million into refugees, and caused hundreds of thousands to starve to cath. Ethiopia had a 30ycarlong civil war that took 50,000 lives.
A bnutal war has raged in Angola for 18 years, Ethnic fighting left 150,000 to 200,000 homeless in Kenya in the last two years. Sudan has been convulsed by a civil war. Ten thousand people died in ethnic violence in Burundi. Hundreds of Civilians were massacred in Liberia last year, And all this while millions of people have starved to death over the years. Today, half the world’s refugees are African, most of them fleeing drought or Civil war or both. And while their continent starves, the personal fortune of President Mobutu of Zaire is estimated at between $4 billion to $6 billion. Heisolates himself aboard a luxury yacht that cruises the Zaire River, with a helicopter waiting on deck, He isn’t alone; Many other African tyrants have amassed colossal fortunes. ‘The killings in Rwanda are yet to abate, but they reveal a truth we don’t mention out of politeness. ‘The truth is that Rwanda and the rest of Africa represents the worst we sec in the world today. And the North American continent, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand represent the best. Between these two extremes lie a few score nations whose behavior determines if they resemble the good American and European model or the bad African one.
Japan and Singapore, for example, resemble the prosperity and Stability of the white western world, while nations like Yugoslavia Haiti, or even Afghanistan are falling into the African category. Thanks to our economy opening up, we are following the Western model of development but we must be watchful.
A few riots like the ones that followed Babri Masjid’s demolition, headlines in the world press, and India begins to appear violence ridden Never should we allow ourselves to be seen as slip ping towards the African category.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 14, 1994
